Posts
Our dogs are now 4 years old! In dog years they're catching up to Amanda and I. :)
Haven's birthday is June 8 and Beacon's is June 9. They're from the same litter, so how are they born a day apart? Their mother, Sheree (owned by friends of ours), gave birth to the litter late evening June 8th, sometime around 9-11pm that night. After our friends waited a few hours to make sure all seven puppies had arrived, they went to bed around 1am. When they woke up and checked on Sheree at 8am, there was an eighth puppy! It was Beacon, the runt of the litter.
Since Amanda has posted the birthday photos, I'll leave you with some of Haven's and Beacon's puppy pics...
Beacon is on the far left with his head down, pointing to the top of the frame; Haven is bottom center, her head straining to face the camera.
Beacon is on the left, Haven is on the right; they're almost four weeks old.
Today was definitely a Fox Mulder day...
Adopt Her Already!
First the not-so-bad. Our foster dog Reese has been wanted by a couple for over a week now but they keep dragging their feet. We met them with Reese at a pet store last week and they liked her, but then wanted to see her interact with their current dog. Makes sense, but couldn't we have done that for the first meeting if that was an issue? So we take Reese to their house, she and their dog get along great, but one of the adopters is out of town and they want to discuss to make sure. OK... Finally they decide to adopt her and we arrange to meet at my office Thursday to sign the papers but she never shows up. Today we're supposed to meet, but she calls to say she's running late and won't be free until after I leave work. Now Amanda has to coordinate meeting her while I go for my run. To top it off they can't pick Reese up until Monday since one of couple is still on travel. If they'd been just a wee bit more proactive early on, Reese could've gone home with them over a week ago! Oh well. The good thing is that Reese is adopted, and we actually really like this couple. They're nice, patient with dogs, Reese and their dog get along great, they have a big fenced-in backyard, and they go camping a lot. Reese will be happy with them so this craziness is worth it.
Bad Business
Today at home Amanda gets a call from Fidelity where the guy says he has to talk to me about my retirement account due to the takeover. (Background: my company used Fidelity for their 401K but we've since been bought by another company that uses a different financial service.) This guy leaves his name and a direct line phone number. So I call him back from work and get a generic voicemail box saying "an appropriate associate will return your call"... I get suspicious and contact HR at work, who contacted Fidelity and was able to confirm that Fidelity's sales group was using a register of names acquired during the takeover to cold-call people at my company to pitch personal retirement accounts. How incredibly unethical! On top of that, it would seem to me to be bad business. Here's a prime example: I had been planning to leave the amount accrued from my former company in Fidelity's 401K rather than rolling it over, but now they have just cost themselves my account. Prepare to roll it over, Fidelity!
Play Ball! Not.
Thursday night was my softball team's fourth game of the season, except that it never happened. We all showed up, the other team showed up, the umpires showed up... and so did a little league team that claimed to have the field during our game time! I called GRAASA, our softball league, but the number was disconnected! The little league got the city parks and recreation director on the phone, who confirmed that the little league gets the field. Our game got canceled. What the heck? It turns out that GRAASA had reserved the field and the little league was supposed to play on Saturday; however, the little league umpires had a conflict that day so at the last minute the city gave them our field but never told GRAASA. What annoys me is that this same thing happened to another GRAASA game last week but GRAASA never did anything to prevent it from happening again. Isn't once enough to learn a lesson? Maybe not for these folks, as they have yet to demonstrate any thoroughness in their operation of the league. Our schedule was postponed by a week to start the season because they couldn't find enough fields. Then the first field was played on was a kids' field with un-attached bases and a storm drain in centerfield - dangerous! Turns out GRAASA never even looked at the field before reserving it. We're currently operating under league schedule revision 5 or 6 (I've lost count) because they don't proofread their schedules before sending them out. They didn't even proofread their rulebook, which explains the disconnected phone number - their phone works, but they wrote the wrong number in the rulebook! If that all wasn't enough, some of their umpires were unaware of some non-standard GRAASA-specific rules. To their credit they are 100% volunteer, but that's no excuse for not being thorough and complete. Today at work I had to write them a "nice" letter to explain my teams' lack of satisfaction.
So yeah, today was a tough day of dealing with people that can't be counted on.
Happily we still had two good reasons to celebrate the day - Haven and Beacon's birthday!
In honor of my not-so-secret birthday, let's discuss what careers we envisioned for ourselves as kids. Did you have just one idea that all your dreams were made of, or was your future more of a moving target?
I was one of the latter - each year I had a new profession that I was gonna be when I grew up. Here's my list; note that my "years" are based on school years not calendar years, as my memories are inevitably tied to what grade I was in at the time, not how old I was.
Pre-school - garbage man
I was in awe of the garbage trucks and how they could "gruff" the trash in the compactor!
Kindergarten - ornithologist
My favorite book was the Field Guide to Birds of North America and I loved to watch hawks and vultures soaring above.
1st grade - construction worker
I wanted to operate a lime green front-end loader because I loved giant construction machines.
2nd grade - center fielder for the Detroit Tigers and wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals
The hometown Tigers had just won the World Series and the Bengals had cool helmets; apparently I was going to be Bo Jackson!
3rd grade - paleontologist
I was going to dig up fossils to study prehistoric mammals; my favorite was Andrewsarchus for obvious reasons. :)
4th grade - zoologist
I wanted to study large mammalian predators such as wolves, bears, and big cats
5th grade - marine biologist
In particular I wanted to study marine mammals, especially orcas and dolphins.
6th grade - fiction writer
Reading countless Newberry Medal books got me thinking that I could write cool stories, too.
7th grade - forest ranger
I loved trees, especially redwoods and sequoias. A family trip to Yellowstone National Park inspired this one.
8th grade - canine and/or dolphin behaviorist
My plan was to understand dog/dolphin communication and ultimately learn to speak their language.
9th grade - astronaut
My dream was to take part in the first mission to walk on Mars.
10th grade - architect
I read a book about Frank Lloyd Wright and loved the concept of blending form with function.
11th grade - aerospace engineer
I loved airplanes and flying; plus, it sounded impressive when written on a college application.
12th grade - helicopter pilot
I had started taking flying lessons and preferred "low and slow" rather than "high and fast" flying.
How did I choose? With my eyesight too poor to become a pilot, I stuck to the most recent available career and became an aerospace engineer; besides, I kinda felt locked in by virtue of my choice of college major. In college I did revisit the pilot idea with the Marines when I found out they offered waivers for imperfect eyesight; however, my vision was way too nearsighted for a waiver and I didn't want to be a back-seater.
I might have considered careers in athletics had I thought that was an option; however, from an early age my mom instilled that such careers were dead-ends and sports were just games. Now that I realize how possible it is to have meaningful careers in athletics, perhaps my interests there would've received more serious attention.
Ironically (or perhaps predictably) I'm presently none of the professions listed above; I still call myself an aerospace engineer but in truth I work as a computer systems engineer for a company that puts their products on aircraft. In retrospect I probably would've preferred a career in the natural sciences because as cool as technology is, it's never more fascinating than nature.
Dogs haven’t always been kind to me. My first memory of a dog was our neighbor’s large Weimereiner when I was four years old – I was on my back in the grass, staring up at the grey dog’s belly because she had just run me over! Yet somehow I always knew that dogs are good. For the past three years my dogs Haven and Beacon have reminded me of that altruism on a daily basis.
Big dogs have always appealed to me the most but my parents decided that our first dog would be a small one. When I was ten years old I helped choose Penny from among her litter of Westie puppies. My two brothers and I absolutely adored her, and it only took us two years to talk our parents into a second dog. One day while visiting the local Humane Society we spotted a Sheltie mix that we fell for, and Gyro came home to become Penny’s little brother.
Penny and Gyro had a significant influence on me as I grew up. In middle school I had plans to study dog behavior and language as a career, and even employed my dogs in a science project. When I went off to college, I looked forward to seeing them when I visited home. Of course, they were always just as thrilled to see me. It was after I graduated college that Penny succumbed to old age at 15, and the next year Gyro passed on at 14. Even though I’d been living away from home for their last few years, it felt strange to no longer have any dogs in my life.
In March 2003 my new wife Amanda and I moved back to Michigan and bought a house that had one key feature: a large, fenced-in backyard. Immediately I tried to convince Amanda that we needed a dog. My persuasion worked, and then some. We wound up picking TWO puppies from the litter of our friends’ yellow Labrador Retriever. Haven and her littermates were born late at night on June 8, 2003. Sometime after midnight Beacon was born, so technically his birthday is June 9.
Two weeks later our friends went on their honeymoon, so we watched their dog, Sheree, along with her entire litter of eight puppies. Amanda instantly fell in love with Beacon because he was the runt, far smaller than his siblings. Three pups caught my eye right away due to their insistent curiosity, and I eventually settled on Haven. Interestingly, each of Amanda’s and my choices have latched onto us, respectively – Haven has become “daddy’s girl” and Beacon is a “momma’s boy”.
Our choices couldn’t have been more perfect. Over the past three years they’ve grown into the two big dogs that I’ve always wanted. Haven hasn’t lost her curiosity and absolutely loves to accompany me on long runs on the trails, exploring all of the sights and scents of the forest. Beacon has a passion for catching frisbees in the backyard and fetching sticks in any lake or river. When I come home from work Haven’s entire body wiggles in excitement while Beacon greets me with his favorite toy in his mouth.
While my first encounter with a dog didn’t go very smoothly, I can’t imagine life without dogs. I was lucky to grow up with Penny and Gyro, and my luck continues with Haven and Beacon being a part of my life today. In fact, their nicknames “Havy” and “Beaks” are the inspiration of this site. Happy 3rd birthday, HavyBeaks!
